The countdown is nearing its end – the MTNA Conference will begin in only a couple of days! I opted not to participate in either of the special Saturday sessions this year, but I plan to attend the opening keynote address by Van Cliburn on Saturday evening. I copied the Daily Schedule from the MTNA […]
Group Class Ideas
Rhythegories
Here’s a fun worksheet I used to start off this group class celebrating Mozart’s birthday: Click here or on the above image to download the worksheet. It’s a fun ice-breaker sort of activity, as it helps the students start working together as a team and share ideas with each other. Each team designates one writer […]
Happy Birthday Mozart! Group Class Idea
In celebration of the 250th birthday of Mozart this year, I held a special birthday party at my February group class. The only catch was that I didn’t tell the students whose birthday we were celebrating. Throughout the course of the evening, they collected clues and at the end had to figure out whose birthday […]
White Board Messages
Every music teacher needs a white board. My students love writing messages on my white board. Here’s one that showed up today: “I want stay in your lessons till a’m 35 years old” This particular white board is one I picked up at a local teacher supply store. It’s magnetic, 24×36″ and has a grid […]
Students Go Fishing and Have A Turkey Shoot!
Ten students gathered at the studio last Thursday night for our second group class of the semester. With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, it seemed like the perfect theme for this event. We began by discussing how Thanksgiving (defined as “giving thanks”) and music are linked. I read Psalm 137 as a perfect example of how the […]
A Different Approach to Sight-Reading
One of my objectives this summer in my piano camp for elementary students was to build better reading skills. In addition to other activities, I decided to try this different approach to note identification and intervallic playing. I emphasized using Cs as landmark notes and then playing intervals from those landmarks. (This is not geared […]
